And, while US officials have voiced concerns about al Qaeda-affiliated forces gaining a foothold on Syria's border with Israel, Tel Aviv itself appears to be giving tacit backing to these elements. This was made clear by the chief of the Israeli defense ministry's diplomatic security bureau, Amos Gil'ad, who in an interview with the Israeli media downplayed any danger from al Qaeda. "It is not the same threat as one posed by Iran, Syria and Hezbollah," he declared. The advance of the al Qaeda-linked forces in Syria, he added, "is a blow to Iran and Hezbollah together."
Washington Post columnist David Ignatius, who enjoys close ties to US intelligence, cites an "order of battle" prepared by the Free Syrian Army for the US State Department. It shows, he said, that "most of the rebel groups have strong Islamic roots."
As a result, he warns, "the post-Assad situation may be as chaotic and dangerous as the civil war itself. The Muslim rebel groups will try to claim control of Assad's powerful arsenal, including chemical weapons, posing new dangers."
He reports that the document received by the State Department describes two almost identically named Islamist fronts, one backed by Saudi Arabia and the other by "wealthy Saudi, Kuwaiti and other Gulf Arab individuals," as well as a third "rebel group" funded by the monarchical regime in Qatar.
The al Qaeda-linked Nusra front is said to number some 6,000 fighters.
Ignatius suggests that US strategy is to pressure the Saudi regime to push the Islamist front it backs into an alliance with the Turkey-based Free Syrian Army and its US-backed commander, Gen. Salim Idriss.
"That would bring a measure of order and would open the way for Idriss to negotiate a military transition government that would include reconcilable elements of Assad's army," Ignatius writes.
This scenario provides a revealing glimpse of Washington's strategy for the Syrian "revolution." After using al Qaeda and similar forces as shock troops in a war for regime change, its intent is to fashion a new dictatorial regime based upon the remnants of Assad's security forces and fully subordinated to US imperialism's predatory aims in the region.
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